tender is the night
by imagined-experiences
Summary: At night, you see things differently. A lily/James one shot about an all-nighter. Written for round 3 of a contest.


This was written for the round 3 of the Challenge That Must Not Be Named, by Honeybeebeauty and Never-ending nights with you. The prompt was to write a story about an all-nighter. It's Lily/James. The title is inspired from a quote of Ode to a Nightingale, John Keats.

Thanks Never-ending nights with you for beta reading it!

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**Tender is the night**

Lily was sat on her spot for night studies for several hours now. She usually sat there with Mary to study around ten, and finished around midnight if she was lucky. But tonight was different; she had been exhausted and had fallen asleep until around two in the morning.

She glanced around and noticed she was alone; Mary was probably already in her dorm, she never stayed as late as Lily.

Lily always enjoyed working at night because things were different. Everything was dark and peaceful, and she always had the impression that her brain worked differently when it was late. She worked better. At night, she saw things under another perspective. It was like her brain wasn't as strict as it usually was, her ideas seemed freer.

It was silly, but it was how she felt it. An all new world opened her doors at night, and she loved it.

She dared things easier. Like that time she dared use runes in her Arithmacy essay, she was certain that if she had done it during the day she would have thought the idea was crazy, but in the night, it seemed plausible. Everything seemed plausible and better.

Thinking about Arithmacy made her look to her essay on the table; she was far away from the end. With a sigh, she started working on it again.

Ten minutes later, she was interrupted by people walking on the common room. She looked up to the Portrait to see James, Sirius and Peter entering slowly. She knew why they were up that night: it was not for a prank, so she let them pass without a word.

She had known about Remus's condition for half a year now, she had talked with him and swore to never speak about it. But she still wondered why every night, the three friends waited for him at the hospital wing. Probably to assure themselves that he was fine.

Sirius and Peter went upstairs to the dorms, but James stayed in the common room, probably to annoy her. Only this time, he didn't invade her personal space like always, he was sitting far away from Lily - she was surprised. But he was just probably too tired to have her shoving him away. To her surprise, he took a book and a parchment and started doing his homework too. Instead of working, now, though, she observed him.

"I work better at night," he said simply.

She didn't answer and resumed working. From time to time, she quickly glanced at him. He was different in the dark. He seemed less arrogant ... Te_nicer_. The flames of the fire and the candles on the table they were working on were the only lights on the room. They reflected beautifully in his eyes. He raised his gaze from his essay to her, and she blushed, looking at her book again and waited for a remark on his part.

"You're even more beautiful with this lightening," he told her before continuing his work.

Well, at least he did not taunt her about watching him.

She didn't know why, but she felt the urge to speak with him. His tone wasn't teasing, mocking or suggestive — it was a simple murmur. And she found it was nice.

"How's Remus?" she asked.

He was shocked, he didn't knew that she knew.

"I — I know about his ... his condition. And I know that you wait for him at the hospital wing every time."

"Oh, he's fine. As fine as he can be due to his ... condition."

They worked in silence for a moment, and it was peaceful and it felt good. He wasn't pushing her out of her boundaries, she wasn't yelling at him. They were just sat, working, and occasionally talking about something or another. It went like that for a moment, small talk and studies.

"Lily?"

"Yes?"

"Can I show you something in that book?" James asked.

"Um, sure. What is it?" She was curious.

He sat right next to her, shoulders brushing. But since it was late, Lily didn't mind, she didn't have the strength to protest.

"This potion, here, that line. The instructions contradict themselves from this page .... to this one. See, here its five leaves, and here four. What do you think?"

"I didn't notice it! It's a mistake; we should show that to Professor Slughorn tomorrow."

He grinned at her.

"What?" she asked, smiling, his grin was contagious.

"Nothing, you just use 'we' in a sentence, and it involved you and me, and you were not yelling or upset."

"Well, sometimes you company can be nice. And I'll blame it on the fact that is"—she looked at her watch—"five in the morning! I need to get up in three hours!"

"Time flies when you are enjoying yourself, doesn't it?" James said before adding, "You aren't even asleep yet. So why bother going to bed? I really want to stretch my luck and spend a little time with you not yelling at me."

Lily sat up, took her belongings and start walking toward the dorm entrance.

"You know what, James, you can try your luck tomorrow. Maybe I'll be nice. Things are different at night."

Maybe it was because she had been awake for eighteen hours. Or because he had been nice to her that night, or maybe the candles lights really flattered him. Or because of the pleasant moment they shared. But she already wanted it to be tomorrow night.

And James was, alone, dancing happily because Lily Evans had just called him James.


End file.
